THIS WEEK'S BEST BET

That long-anticipated Kings' banner-raising ceremony on opening night in front of a bunch of visiting New Yorkers has been preempted. Reason: Greed. What the puck? It doesn't mean that everything we saw last June after Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals just didn't happen. The Kings' players DNA is all over the Stanley Cup by now, and their names have been chiseled onto it for good measure. Yet, the current lockout has already canceled the first two weeks of this 2012-13 season. They could be reclaimed in a condensed schedule, but ... The best alternative we can offer is the Kings planned a Stanley Cup tour around L.A. this week, hitting spots like Knott's Berry Farm, the ESPN Zone at L.A. Live, the Grove and the Americana in Glendale between Wednesday and Friday. And for some live hockey fix, ESPN will do some Russian-based Kontinental Hockey League games, starting Tuesday with Dynamo Moscow, featuring Washington Caps captain Alexander Ovechkin, playing host to Lev (10 a.m., ESPN2).

You counting the Athletics out just because they're down 2-0 to the Tigers? Somehow, this feels a lot like when Texas took a 5-1 lead in the third inning over these same A's in the final game of the regular season. And then the Rangers lost 12-5, giving away the AL West title. These A's are, for lack of a better term, too young and dumb to let the stress get to them. They aren't paid enough to get stressed out. There's also precedent for this kind of comeback - in 1995, the first year of the wild-card, the Seattle Mariners fell behind the first two games in New York to the Yankees but won three in a row at the Kingdome.

The trip overseas for the Clippers and Heat provides a lot of nice photo ops for LeBron James and Blake Griffin. For Dwyane Wade and Chris Paul. For Ray Allen and Lamar Odom. While Erik Spoelstra and Vinny Del Negro get mistaken for team chaperones. The Lakers are content to not have any travel issues, actually getting a real home-court test by the end of the week.

College football: USC at Washington, 4 p.m. Saturday, Channel 11:

Expect a Pete Carroll sighting somewhere at CenturyLink Field, home of his Seattle Seahawks and the Huskies' temporary home field as their stadium is getting renovated. Because Carroll's Seahawks are in town to play Sunday at home against New England, the former USC head coach can watch both his former top two assistants, Lane Kiffin and Steve Sarkisian, go at each other. Marqise Lee caught a touchdown pass and returned the second-half kickoff 88 yards during the Trojans 40-17 win over the Huskies last year at the Coliseum.

The Utes' 31-6 win in Salt Lake City last November amidst snow and ice was mostly the result of John White IV's 167 yards rushing on 33 carries and three TDs, plus the Bruins' 12 penalties for 91 yards. The Bruins can't afford to mess around after the way they played at Cal last Saturday.

NFL

Week 5:

Houston at N.Y. Jets, 5:30 p.m. today, ESPN

Week 6:

Pittsburgh at Tennessee, 5:20 p.m. Thursday, NFL Network

Green Bay at Houston, 5:20 p.m. Sunday, Channel 4

N.Y. Giants at San Francisco, 1:25 p.m. Sunday, Channel 11

Oakland at Atlanta, 10 a.m. Sunday, Channel 2

Dallas at Baltimore, 10 a.m Sunday., Channel 11

Indianapolis at N.Y. Jets, 10 a.m. Sunday

Wouldn't this be the perfect stage for Jets coach Rex Ryan to unceremoniously pull Mark Sanchez in the middle of the game and watch the home crowd go nuts as he hands the keys to the offense to Tim Tebow? Ryan maintains the former USC star remains his money player, and ESPN.com's Darren Rovell thinks he's figured out why: "Ryan might say it's not about the money, when you look at the numbers, the Jets most likely will give Sanchez the benefit of the doubt for a while." For starters, Sanchez's total cost to the Jets this year exceeds $9 million (including an $8 million signing bonus). That's 82 times more what they've invested in Tebow. Sanchez also has $20.5 million guaranteed the next two years. Tebow's total commitment: $3.63 million, but more than half of that are payments to the Denver Broncos. There's always time to wait and see if it happens by the end of the week, as the Jets host the newly inspired Colts.